My Freediving Origin Story: How Someone Who Didn’t Like Swimming is Now Heading into the Depths

When I first heard about free diving I thought it was pretty stupid and nearly pointless for me to be interested in it. I had a pretty pathetic breath hold with 10 seconds on my external breath retention and 30 on my internal. The specific type of underwater work I was interested in dealt with the external breath hold and the ability to work with the buoyancy of the human body without the aid of weights. To be specific, I wanted do be able to do underwater modeling, at least some of the time. The bigger part of the draw for me was to be able to see fish and other marine life up close.
My parents have always called me a mermaid. I’ve always been drawn to the ocean and I was usually found in or near water throughout my childhood. I continued to love water and being in it through adulthood. But I didn’t like to swim. I could sit in a hot tub for hours, loved feeling the waves crash against my body as I enjoyed the ocean from a reasonably shallow depth, but swimming…

When we were required to take swimming classes in middle and high school, my dislike for swimming began. I don’t technically have asthma, I’m a borderline asthmatic, meaning I’m right on the edge, with lower lung functions than the average person. I’ve never had an asthma attack, but I struggle to get my breath sometimes…most all of those times have to do with me swimming. I’m still not sure if it was the chlorine of the pool, the fact that I was probably breathing…